ed the house when a charming figure slipped across the
road before him. To his surprise it was the young girl he had met a few
months before on the Skyscraper. But the Tam o' Shanter was replaced by
a little straw hat; and a light dress, summery in color and texture,
but more in keeping with her rustic surroundings, seemed as grateful and
rare as the sunshine. Without knowing why, he had an impression that
it was of her own making--a gentle plagiarism of the style of her more
fortunate sisters, but with a demure restraint all her own. As she
recognized him a faint color came to her cheek, partly from surprise,
partly from some association. To his delighted greeting she responded by
informing him that her father had taken the cottage he had just passed,
where they were spending a three weeks' vacation from his business. It
was not so far from St. Kentigern but that he could run up for a day to
look after the shop. Did the consul not think it was wise?

Quite ready to assent to any sagacity in those clear brown eyes, the
consul thought it was. But was it not, like wisdom, sometimes lonely?

Ah! no. There was the loch and the hills and the heather; there were her
flowers; did he not think they were growing well? and at the head of the
loch there was the old tomb of the McHulishes, and some of the coffins
were still to be seen.

Perhaps emboldened by the consul's smile, she added, with a more serious
precision which was, however, lost in the sympathizing caress of her
voice, "And would you not be getting off and coming in and resting a wee
bit before you go further? It would be so good of you, and father would
think it so kind. And he will be there now, if you're looking."

The consul looked. The old man was standing in the doorway of the
cottage, as respectably uncompromising as ever, with the slight
concession to his rural surroundings of wearing a Tam o' Shanter and
easy slippers. The consul dismounted and entered. The interior was
simply, but tastefully furnished. It struck him that the Scotch prudence
and economy, which practically excluded display and meretricious
glitter, had reached the simplicity of the truest art and the most
refined wealth. He felt he could understand Gray's enthusiasm, and by an
odd association of ideas he found himself thinking of the resigned face
of the lonely passenger on the Skyscraper.

"Have you heard any news of your friend who went to Rio?" he asked
pleasantly, but without addressin